The best thing you can do to live a Jesus-centered life is start with the Bible.  Sometimes, this can be overwhelming on where to start, and what the Bible says about the details of life. So here are 10 Scriptures on How to Live Your Life Like Jesus.

1. Galatians 5:16-6:10

If you’ve been following Jesus for even a short time, you’ve probably at least heard of the fruits of the spirit. But the text that is around the fruits is just as important to how we live our lives. 

This section highlights the fact that your selfish spirit will never stop battling with the Holy Spirit.  It highlights the things that your natural spirit wants and then brings in the fruits of the spirit. 

Then it says if you notice the fruit of the natural spirit in someone, gently and humbly help them come back into life with Christ.  Which let’s be real; gentle and humble is something that doesn’t always happen when we’re trying to help or correct someone in Christ.  

This scripture then goes into making sure you worry about yourself more than you worry or compare to others, especially to make yourself feel “holier.” 

And then this section ends with “you will harvest what you plant,” making the emphasis on, if you want to know who follows Jesus and who doesn’t, look at their life and the fruit their life bears.  So take a minute and look at your life and what fruit you’re bearing.

2. Eph 4:17-5:14

This is a great section of scripture that really walks through some real examples of how we should and shouldn’t live life.  The key part of this scripture, I think is that we should imitate God above everything as his children.  A place I see a lot of people missing the mark as they try to give modern application to the Bible is they try to mold God to their life, not mold their life to God. Our goal as Jesus followers is to make ourselves look more like him, not the other way around. And if you hold any identity other than Child of God as your first descriptor of who you are, that may be the first place to ask yourself why and what you should do about it. 

3. Ephesians 6:10-20

Ephesians is just an all-around great book on how to live life, so I went with two sections. Armor of God is probably equally popular to the Fruit of the Spirit, but while the fruit is about how people know you are a Jesus follower, the Armor of God is how you protect yourself as a Jesus follower.  When you step out and say, “I’m with Jesus,” the devil isn’t happy, and you enter into a spiritual war that’s been happening for eons.  So this is how we prepare and protect ourselves in Jesus to stay centered in him and ready for the work he has for us.  

4. Philippians 1:27-2:18

I think viewing yourself as a citizen of heaven gives a certain gentleness to how we live our lives and show the gospel.  It aligns with being called “ambassadors of Christ” in 2 Corinthians. But if you think about the way someone acts going to another country or how an ambassador acts in different countries, this gives an easier understanding of how we are to live.  People come to know what Jesus is like through us sharing the “culture” of heaven with them.  We live with an understanding that we are representing our “country” when others see us.  There is a reason why certain countries, states, and cities have a certain view by others and it’s because enough of their citizens have acted that way that they developed a reputation for being like that, whether or not it’s true.  And we see that with our own faith.  Christianity has a certain view in our media, which comes from the way some people who call themselves Christians act. 

But when I live a life that follows Jesus and people see what I mean when I say Jesus and Christianity, more than once, people say they like my version.  And that’s what Philippians is talking about here. That if we can show people what being a “citizen of heaven” actually looks like, that will shine bright in a dark world.

5. Romans 12 and 13

I’ve already done some deep dives into Romans 12 since it’s kind of where Weird Souls started.  But chapter 13 continues into how we should live our lives, especially in a culture where the leaders and rules aren’t necessarily Christian. I also love verse 10 which says 

Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.

Which is what everything in “How We Live Our Life” returns to: agape love, the sacrificial brotherly love.  If you can focus your thoughts only on how to show agape love in every situation, you’ll be doing just fine on following Jesus.

6. Colossians 3:1-17

I love lists of what not to do, not as a way to point out and judge people for what they’re doing wrong, but as a way to show we are all equal.  As humans, we like to think one sin is “worse” than others. But usually, what we’re ranking is the level of fallout or consequences a sin has. Yes, some sins have more long-lasting consequences, but as we see from every list in the bible, lust, greed, and anger are right next to idolatry and sexual immorality.  Sin is sin. And we are to wear a different way of life.  

We see a similar list to the fruit of the spirit, but here, it gives us the image of wearing them.  What would people think of you if they saw kindness, humility, and patience every time they looked at you as though it was the clothes you wear?

7. Luke 10:25-28

Another standard verse is when we talk about loving people.  And you can read the rest of the chapter for the story of the Good Samaritan. But I wanted to just focus on these three verses because of how straightforward it is.  The teacher of the law questioning Jesus about how to have eternal life summarized all of the law of Moses, the rules God gave the Israelites on how to be his people, by saying love God and love people.  

He also said this publicly, which probably means this would have been an agreed-upon statement by other teachers of the law.  He then questions Jesus on who his neighbor is, which I wonder what he thought Jesus was going to struggle with.  He was probably expecting him to say something about the Romans, but the Old Testament is pretty clear on caring for foreigners, minorities, and the helpless. 

So, since the law of Moses is what Jesus came to fulfill, love God love people is a good summery to what we’re supposed to do. But where we sometimes get tripped up is by separating these or putting people before God.  We have to make sure we keep things in that order. Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind first.  And when you have that love as your center, the overflow will be loving others in a way that is Jesus-centered and beneficial to them. 

8. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

How we love to argue over the technicalities of sexual sin.  What is it, and how close can we get without actually sinning?  But the heart of the matter here, which flows into every area of life, is controlling your bodies and living in holiness and honor.  You can think of many things that no one will ever know if you never tell them. But where the mind goes, the heart eventually follows. And when you think about things that reduce people to objects, concepts, or puppets rather than image bears of God, it will make it more difficult for you to treat them as a brother and sister in Christ. So, we control our minds. 

I think the sexual battle is just one of the more common downfalls of us as humans, then and now, which is why this is a common topic throughout the Bible. But it doesn’t mean the battle of the mind and self-control of our body doesn’t expand to other areas of our life.  I mean, our culture is full of identity battles where we boil people down to one category and heap expectations, assumptions, and judgment on them for that one piece of life.  This scripture calls us to control ourselves and not treat people poorly because of what we think of them or their beliefs or who they are, but to rather focus on the agape love God is calling us to, especially with our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

  So, considering where you are thinking of people as less than human and how to control your mind and thoughts to treat them better can be a starting application to this scripture.

9. 1 Peter 3:8-18

This section highlights the backwardness of Jesus’ kingdom.  How rather than cursing, you should bless and suffer for doing what’s right.  It’s a reminder that even when we are living the life Jesus wants us to live and bearing all the right fruit, life still happens, and there is still evil in the world. And because of these things, there will still be bad stuff that happens in life, and there will still be people who don’t like us for no reason or because we follow Jesus.  Either way, how we are treated is not supposed to be the thing that determines how we treat others. 

10. 1 John 3:11-4:21

It was a struggle to commit to just 10, but I went with this one as my last because “Loving people” is also a big part of our culture, and I think this scripture does some good framework on how love and culture connect. 

Verse 16 says we know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. This is the starting point of what love we are to display as Christians and how we’re to welcome all Jesus’ followers. Meaning we shouldn’t let anything divide us but rather let the love of Christ unite us.  And we are to filter who is actually teaching the Love of Jesus by whether they acknowledge who Jesus is, was, and did.  Do they believe the truth of Jesus?  If they don’t have that at the center of everything they teach, they aren’t a Christian. And that isn’t meant in a hateful way, but in a truth, kind way. In the same way as saying an orange isn’t an apple.  

So when we have centered ourselves in the true love of Christ, we are called to love our brothers and sisters in Christ in the same way.  And if this is not the type of love overflowing from someone, they haven’t centered themselves in Christ’s spirit, with verse 20 calling them a liar. 

So foremost this scripture should give us a test for how we’re doing on representing the love of Christ, but a guide for how others are acting while using the name of Christ within the Church body.

So what’s next

So, these are some great starting points that focus on applying our faith to our lives. While it would be nice if every difficult part of life would just be listed with the answer on what to do, these scriptures will give you a framework for how you should be, regardless of the situation. And if you’re the same person following Christ no matter what is thrown at you, you’ll shine bright in a dark world.

Stay Weird,